


The Bee-Keeper

by Bazylia_de_Grean



Series: Rare Talent and Intellect [11]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 15:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12633513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bazylia_de_Grean/pseuds/Bazylia_de_Grean
Summary: Fools will probably say later that it was the Duke’s death that brought the tragedy on. But if Eydis was alive, she would have held the city together.





	The Bee-Keeper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rannadylin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rannadylin/gifts).



> (Prompt by Rannadylin: "a hive of bees". Trust me never to treat any prompts literally and try to turn them on their heads ;) )

He watches as her eyes widen in shock and then darken with understanding for an instant, before her turn of the Wheel finally comes to an end. Both comprehension and life slowly drown, until all that is left in her eyes is his reflection. It has always been so.

Thaos carefully wipes both hands on his robe, then reaches out to close her eyes; gently, because her body is so fragile now. But her spirit and will have always been strong, her mind and soul as well. Such a waste.

For a moment, he looks at her face. There is nothing left of that bright young woman he had known in his previous life. Nothing left of that adversary she has become over the years – not formidable, but still someone he had to take into consideration in all his plans, someone he could respect. Perhaps deep down that was another reason why he allowed her to live, aside from the obvious and logical one that death would have given her the answer, while living only gave her doubts. And yet she brushed them aside and continued with her work, tirelessly trying to undermine his efforts... and coming closer to accomplishing that than anyone before her.

Thaos walks over to the table, reaches for the bottle and pours a bit of brandy into the empty glass. Just a few drops; it is supposed to be symbolic, nothing more. He turns towards Eydis’ body and raises the glass in a silent salute. There are traces of her soul essence all over the room, and when he swallows the alcohol, briefly closing his eyes, her image shimmers in his mind – Eydis Webb as she saw herself in that last moment just before death. A bright young woman with a triumphant smile on her face, a smile that says ‘I told you I can’, as she had said to him many times after she had learned some new form of mind manipulation and wanted to show off.

There is no more time to waste, and after a while the glass is back on the table beside the bed, the knife is back at his belt, a dagger in his hand instead, and Thaos is just another shadow on the dim streets of Defiance Bay. In the chaos after the Duke’s assassination, no one pays any attention to him. Good for them; perhaps they will live through this night that way.

The city is burning with fire and hatred that has been growing on fear for a long time, fear of unknown. Always a good weapon. It is not the first city he set aflame with that match.

The kith are running across the streets in chaos, frightened and disoriented like a hive of bees without their queen. Later there will be apathy and hesitation, but eventually life will take its course and the city will rise from the ashes. But destroying Defiance Bay was never his goal; and while rebuilding it will take time, it will take even longer for animancy to recover from such a blow, not just in Dyrwood, but all across the world. With a few carefully chosen words whispered by undercover Leaden Key acolytes across the Eastern Reach, that fear will spread like wildfire.

He slips through the gate, hiding in plain sight among the crowd, pulling a string of thought here and there to make the puppets turn their heads away. A Dunryd Row agent spots him, but before the orlan can react, Thaos makes his soul jump quickly into a body of a tall, bulky amaua – how easy to direct someone when there is nothing left in a soul but fear – and the cipher cries out as he is pushed off the bridge and into the river with a knife in his side. Maybe he will make it, if his mistress had earned some favours from one god or another. Thaos has more immediate concerns; his soul swiftly returns to his body and he walks away freely, as the drowning orlan proves a sufficient distraction. He quickly turn off the main road and disappears into the forest, and trees hide him in their shadows as if he was nothing but a gust of wind.

If by some miracle the cipher lives, he will be one of the very few who will know, while fools will probably say later that it was the Duke’s death that brought the tragedy on. But if Eydis was alive, she would have held the city together, she would have maintained order – by force, if diplomacy and cunning failed. She would have sent her agents into the crowd and calmed the kith down, made them step back and lower their knives and fists, at least, if not see reason. That is why she had to die.

Later, when he is hidden in the safety of a small, underground Engwithan temple no one else knows of, he allows himself a moment of regret. What great things she could have accomplished, had she not left the Leaden Key. A corner of his lips curls up, almost as if of its own volition, and Thaos gives in and smiles. She had still accomplished great things, in her own way. Too proud to walk someone else’s path; she had always been like that. And, ultimately, she died for it – for her pride and for her cunning, and for her brilliant mind that could have laid his plans to waste.

But she died as she lived – her own way. She could have fled the city, but she had not. Eydis had chosen the moment of her death as much as he did choose it. In truth, Thaos expected nothing else; he respected her for a reason, after all.

Perhaps they will meet again, in some future life. And perhaps next time, she will be more willing to obey. Thaos shakes his head and chuckles quietly; he really doubts that will ever come to be. Still, it would certainly be interesting, to meet her soul again. Frustrating, surely, because she had always been wilful and he is certain she will be so in her next incarnations as well, but interesting. And there are far too few things that can hold his interest these days.

**Author's Note:**

> (Thaos and Lady Webb are my two fav PoE characters, and I loved that short scene they had together, their past history, and literally everything about that subplot, and it's a perfect place and moment to just randomly mention it :) )


End file.
